World’s richest men back $1bn clean energy fund
The world’s wealthiest individuals, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Jack Ma and Alwaleed Bin Talal, have pledged a portion of their fortunes towards energy technology
San Francisco — Bill Gates and more than a dozen of the world’s wealthiest individuals revealed a new $1bn investment fund late on Sunday to foster major advances in clean energy production. The 20-year fund, called Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is backed by a mix of technology luminaries and heavyweights from the energy industry. The goal is to pump money into risky, long-term energy technology that could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a statement. The investments will probably go into areas such as electricity generation and storage, agriculture and transportation. Investors include Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, Jack Ma, the executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, John Arnold, a billionaire natural gas trader, and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the founder of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Kingdom Holding. Last year, a number of these investors joined Gates in announcing the Bre...
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